Abundant Living Faith Center (AFLC) of El Paso, Texas, recently opened the doors at a second site, located on the west side of town. The new building boasts a sanctuary with seating for more than 2,000 members along with an Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) ADAPTive sound reinforcement system designed to enhance their worship experience.

The church leaders called upon Michael Garrison Associates (MGA) of Fresno, California, to reprise their role as consultant, designer and systems integrator for the audio, video, lighting and acoustic systems the new satellite location required. MGA has worked closed with ALFC since 2004, when design began for a new facility for the church’s main eastside campus. This project, with a 3,600-seat main sanctuary, was complete the end of 2007.

The church’s project team stated from the start that the new sanctuary’s audio system must support the same “concert level” performance as was achieved for the main campus.

“There were limitations on the first project that we hoped to overcome this time around,” says Michael Garrison, president and principal consultant with MGA. “Back then, due to the building’s interior height, the necessary use of front-projection video screens and the loudspeaker technology of the day, it was only possible to provide the desired sound coverage and levels with a 3-faceted monaural line array system.”

ALFC were hoping for better in the new sanctuary – a stereo array, or perhaps even an LCR (Left-Center-Right) system.

“Traditional line arrays have inherent horizontal coverage limitations”, continues Garrison. “And with their necessary ‘J-hang’ (or constant curvature) configurations, you cannot add an adjacent hang to achieve wider coverage without significant phase interferences. Simply put, it is not possible for a traditional line array to cover all listeners in many (if not most) fan-shaped seating areas. You will end up with some percentage of the audience missing out on the spatial benefits of multi-channel [stereo or LCR] loudspeaker systems.”

MGA had been exploring EAW’s ADAPTive technology for some time, having conducted many comparative demos in a local Fresno church auditorium. “We believed that the unique benefits of a “straight hang,” along with the powerful steering capabilities and stellar sonic quality made this product an ideal solution for this project,” says Daniel Durst, one of MGA’s senior designers. “So, we arranged a demo for the ALFC team, which was a total success.”

MGA ultimately specified an LCR system designed to envelope the space in sound. The left and right arrays consist of two Anna columns – one hang of five coupled with another hang of four – along with a center cluster consisting of eight Anna, hung four high by two wide, bringing the total Anna count to 26. Low-end support is provided by Otto subwoofers hung in an end fire array, two-columns of two behind the center Anna array.

Anna provides the benefits of ADAPTive performance in a high-output mid-sized enclosure. Weighing just 135 lbs. (61 kg), the extraordinary output-to-weight ratio as well as 100° horizontal dispersion makes Anna exceptionally versatile. Like all Adaptive Systems, Anna is controlled via Resolution™ 2 software over a Dante™ network and utilizes the same standardized power and data infrastructure.

“I am amazed at how clear the separation and imaging is, even in the worst-case, far-upper corner seat – the furthest distance from the far-side loudspeaker,” concludes Garrison. “And ALFC is so pleased, we are currently designing an Anya system for the main east side campus.”